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0 pointsbbaumgar9y ago0 comments

Could you point to some examples where this has worked? It seems that the entry fee would either 1. limit the community's growth severely (not necessarily a bad thing), or 2. filter out good candidates.

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rfrank9y ago

SomethingAwful's forums required a paid membership and have been around a long time. IMO one of the points of a paid model is keeping membership down to people who actually care enough to pay said membership.

alexandersingh9y ago

Additionally, the implicit threat of having your paid membership revoked for bad behavior can provide a natural check.

Something Awful has used this to great effect to keep trolls in line. I wonder what % of their membership revenue comes from banned users purchasing new accounts.

zemvpferreira9y ago

I'd say most of it, at this point. As a long-time goon, getting banned and rereging the account is a way of patronage. No joke, it's very common behaviour there.

shrikant9y ago

In addition to the examples posted, this model also worked well for MetaFilter. Some of the highest quality online discussions I've seen.

stevewilhelm9y ago

TED and ACM

https://www.ted.com/ http://www.acm.org/

pc869y ago

ACM is a professional association, and I wouldn't consider TED a community.

Neither of these is anything close to a subreddit or forum which is the "community" to which the thread is generally referring.

Spivak9y ago

I would think that LWN is a good example.

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